Notes from a working chemistry classroom.
First-person essays on chemistry teaching, NEET and JEE preparation, CSIR-NET strategy, mentoring first-generation aspirants, and the operating discipline behind a chemistry-first coaching institute in Rajkot.
The 250-MBBS-a-year operating system — what it actually takes
Behind the headline number is a year-long operating cycle that has been refined across sixteen cohorts. An honest walkthrough of what produces those results — and what would break them.
Capital placed in the classroom — sixteen years of reinvesting in Phenol
Why the most disciplined education-infrastructure investing is the kind that happens inside a single institute, year after year, never on a slide deck.
From coaching institute to government-recognised school — the legal and operating arc
The 2025 transition to Phenol School wasn't just a brand upgrade. It was a deliberate move to own the full Class 9-12 student journey — and the regulatory work to get there was the hardest year of my operating career.
Expansion to Farrukhabad — what a serious chemistry institute owes its second city
Opening a branch outside Rajkot was a decade-long deliberation. The first Phenol Institute outside Gujarat is in Badhpur, Farrukhabad — and the operating bar is the same as the home campus.
The Phenol Institute app — why we built it, and what it does that YouTube can't
An honest account of building an Android app for the chemistry institute — what the Play Store install gives a student that 526 free YouTube lectures still don't.
All India Rank 1 in CSIR-NET — what the result actually taught me, and what it didn't
Eleven years on from December 2015, an honest reflection on what topping a national chemistry exam meant for the work that followed — and where the credential helped, where it didn't, and what I still tell students about it.
When alumni return to the chalkboard — Dr. Rushik, Dr. Sagar, Dr. Petha, Dr. Bharat
The most powerful thing a coaching institute can do for a struggling NEET aspirant is bring in a doctor who sat in the same classroom three years earlier. An essay on the Phenol alumni network.
From a stuck 480 to a comfortable 600 in NEET Chemistry — what actually moves the needle
The pattern of a wrong answer matters more than the score. A first-person walkthrough of the work I do with repeaters, drop-year students and 12th-class students who have plateaued.
Honoured on stage — what a teacher actually owes to the room
Receiving public recognition for teaching feels strange the first few times. After a decade of speaking at events, awards and parent forums, an honest essay on what a teacher owes the audience when the spotlight is on.
JEE versus NEET chemistry — they are different exams, the strategy has to be different too
Why a JEE Advanced chemistry preparation is not just a "harder" NEET preparation — and how a 12th-class student in Saurashtra should think about choosing the right track.
Ten years and 1,100 MBBS seats — what actually compounds in a chemistry classroom
A decade-long retrospective on the institute that began with a whiteboard, a stack of NCERT books, and the conviction that small batches taught well outperform big batches taught loudly.
CSIR-NET Chemistry — the six-month plan I used to score All India Rank 1
A first-person walkthrough of the preparation I actually ran in 2015 — the books, the test cadence, the daily rhythm — and how an M.Sc. student today can adapt it without burning out.
When a free chemistry lecture reaches a village in Saurashtra — what online education really does
An honest essay on what happens when a NEET aspirant in a small Saurashtra village watches the same stereochemistry lecture that 12th-class students in Rajkot are watching — and why that matters more than any classroom can.
Why I built The Phenol Institute in Rajkot — not Ahmedabad, not Kota
An honest essay on the operating economics, cultural fit and student needs that made Rajkot — Saurashtra's largest city — the right base for a chemistry-first coaching institute.
What makes a chemistry teacher worth following — an honest checklist for families
The questions a Saurashtra family should actually ask before enrolling their child with any chemistry coach — the markers of teaching quality that matter, and the marketing signals that don't.
Gujarati-medium aspirants in NEET and JEE — bridging the language gap honestly
The advice I give to Saurashtra and rural Gujarat families whose child has studied in Gujarati medium and is now preparing for an English-language national entrance exam.
The weekly test review — the single highest-leverage hour in a chemistry student's week
Why most students lose 30% of their potential improvement because they treat the weekly test as a score and not as a review document — and the specific 90-minute protocol I run with every Phenol student.
Why I run a free chemistry YouTube channel — and what it has taught me about teaching
An honest essay on the THE PHENOL & THE CATALYST channel — why I started it, what 500+ lectures and ten thousand subscribers have taught me, and where free education fits in the operating model of a coaching institute.
Career after 12th Science — the conversation parents actually need to have
An honest essay for parents of Class 12 Science students in Gujarat — the actual options, the realistic timelines, and how to have the family conversation that decides the next decade.